“In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.”

Psalm 119:14-16

God’s testimonies are worth more than all the riches of the world. If you had to choose between a comfortable life where all your wants were met, and owning a Bible, you would be better off with the Bible! God’s words are of infinite worth. They are life (Deuteronomy 32:47; John 6:68). Care for your soul as your highest priority. Give heed to God’s words and how valuable they are.

The psalmist doesn’t just delight in God’s testimonies. He delights in the way of God’s testimonies. The words are valuable, but so is living them out. He commits to:

1. meditate on God’s precepts
2. fix his eyes on god’s ways
3. delight in God’s statues
4. remember God’s word

I tend to remember, meditate on, fix my eyes on, and delight in things that are valuable to me. God’s words are valuable in themselves, and so is obeying God, but I often meditate on and value other things more. God’s words and obeying God need to be valuable to me.

• Resolved: pick one Scripture to memorize or recite every day. Today: Ephesians 1:15
• Resolved: pick one way I want to obey God every day and strive to do so. Today: be thankful (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

A good first step is asking for God’s help. The psalmist repeatedly asks for God to teach him His rules (Psalm 119:12, 26, 29, 33, 64, 68, 108, 124, 135, 171). That’s 10 times in this one psalm! We would do well to imitate the psalmist here. God is ready to help us learn His word and obey Him. Often, all we need to do is ask.

Tags: bible, delight, meditation, memorization, obedience, prayer, psalm, reading, Scripture, thankfulness, value

I’ve seen people dismiss the Bible because it portrays historical events that “just couldn’t happen.” Is this a reason do disbelieve the Bible? Or to “dwindle in unbelief” as I saw one person put it?

It is if, and only if, we live in a materialistic world. I don’t mean an attitude of finding your significance in your possessions. I’m referring to a philosophical position that says that physical “stuff” is all there is in this universe. If God either does not exist, or He does not interact with His world, we must reject the Bible as false.

However, because God exists and works in the created universe, we should not be surprised to find some things in the Bible that may surprise us. An axehead floats. A sea gets parted and over one million people pass through on dry ground. People rise from the dead. Someone’s hair is abnormally heavy. These things are only a problem if God is far removed from our world, or if the Bible teaches that God was not at work in the particular situation. Jesus walked on water. If the Bible made the claim that God had nothing to do with this event, we would have a problem on our hands. But the Bible makes no such claim. It everywhere assumes that things that “just don’t happen” occur in history. We shouldn’t be surprised when we see miracles and “natural impossibilities” occur because we live in a supernatural world.

Let me offer some final thoughts:

1. First, we shouldn’t immediately assume that abnormal things we observe are miraculous acts of God. Loving God with all our minds requires that we use all of our intellect to figure out how God’s world works. Science continually finds explanations for things that was once considered a mystery.
2. Second, we shouldn’t compartmentalize God’s activity as if He is involved in His world when miracles happen and is uninvolved when life continues “normally.” The Bible teaches that God is involved in all parts of the world at all times. Everything that happens, happens because God is at work. Miracles are merely instances of God working in ways that are not His typical means of interacting with His wold. Physical laws are not unbreakable rules. They are merely ways that describe how God normally guides His creation’s activity.
3. Third, the Bible never teaches that miracles used to happen all the time, whereas today they don’t happen anymore. Miracles didn’t happen every day back in biblical times. Remember that Scripture condenses thousands of years into a relatively small number of pages. Sometimes hundreds of years went by with no word from God and no miracle. It’s true that there were a great number of miracles in the time of Moses, Elijah/Elisha, and Jesus. Nevertheless, miracles didn’t happen every day even during these periods of history. Besides, today miracles still happen today. I have seen people get healed of illnesses and injuries when we prayed for them. I know of more instances of healing besides these. God is every bit as active in miracles today as He was in the Bible.
4. Finally, when you speak with people who don’t believe that the Bible is true, keep the concept of “worldview” in mind. A worldview describes how a person looks at the worlds. It includes your beliefs about what is right and wrong, about God, about ultimate reality, and about how you know what you know. If a person’s worldview includes the belief that miracles don’t or can’t happen, it may be helpful to address that when discussing Scripture with them. Of course, God can change people’s beliefs. He does this all the time when we share the gospel with others and God causes them to be born again and to have faith. He makes them believe certain things that they didn’t believe before. Still, God often works through means to achieve those ends. A well-reasoned argument about why miracles are possible may go a long way to helping someone trust that God exists, that they are a sinner, and that Jesus died for their sins.

Tags: Apologetics, belief, bible, evangelism, faith, gospel, materialism, miracles, naturalism, possibility, reading, supernaturalism, worldview

Here’s my New Year’s resolution: finish reading the Bible by the end of 2009. Why not make this your resolution, too? I’ve heard you can read the Bible out loud in around 72 hours. Most of us read much faster than that. But even if we don’t, that’s just 15 minutes of reading a day. That’s less time than it takes me to drive to work!

If you’re interested, here’s a reading plan you can try. You can download it in Excel format. If this plan doesn’t work for you, you can check out a chronological Bible reading plan.

Tags: bible, reading, Scripture